Seneca Optimists

[Paq]

WOW - thanks for making this a discussion. In the Fall of 1975 Peter Byrne (who was Seneca's horn instructor for all three short years of Seneca's existence) asked me and my ex Gilles to come to Toronto and teach the Toronto Optimists (we were living in Montreal and teaching Les Chatelaines after being heavily involved in their reformation). We did move to Toronto and were there only a few weeks when the Toronto Optimists/Seneca Princemen merger was announced. Debbie Miller and I became fast and close friends and teaching the guard heightened when the Seneca Princemen showed up in our ranks. Those girls had a good start on what we trying to do. All of the newly merged corps was very hungry to do well and the teaching staff was extremely close knit making it a wild and fun ride. Once the corps got going many kids from Quebec showed up (having a couple of French speaking instructors helped). I believe one year there were about 6 kids from Quebec including Johanne Briere who played snare. 3 of the instructors -- Peter Byrne (horns), Sam Kays and Al Murray (drums) who were all Canadian had marched in 74 Kingsmen. Kingsmen was a huge influence (and believe me the uniform was not a coincidence). Being called Banaheim was a pleasant surprise. The girls in the guard were just the best to teach---extremely hardworking...a wonderful rag-tag mish-mash of "take no prisoners" girls. As Kelly said lot's of girls showed up from St. John's (my original corps in 64-72) and it was a wonderfully wacky cross town rivalry/friendship with Oaklands... In fact Debbie Miller who taught the rifle line shared an apartment with her sister Cheryl who taught Oaklands flag line.

Ken Mulgrew who had lost his hand in an industrial accident (after someone turned a machine on while his hand was in it) had his hook configured to continue playing and there were many wacky incidents with that hook.

The parachute was a major feat in getting the entire corps underneath. One thing people may not realize is that the guard captain had to pop up thru the hole in the middle and spread her arms out to anchor it, as it had a tendency to want to take off eh and if weather was windy it would lift up. Many times the guard captain had to be anchored by people under the parachute holding her legs down as well

Fast forward to 2006/7. Now living in Los Angeles, I knew it was the opportunity 40 years in the waiting to march with the Kingsmen in the Alumni Corps, and met many great people and Kingsmen legends... 2 other ex-Seneca signed up Mhairi Cumming (flag) and Jim Kane (conga/tymp also brother-in-law) made the trek from Toronto to join the KAC... but 1977 came back to us when we met up with Carl Allison of the Freelancers who in 77 had a a rivalry with Seneca always barely above or below each other...he said the Freelancers would cringe when they would hear the crowd cheer for the parachute since he felt the parachute was our "ace in the hole" and they may have beat us more often if we didn't have it. There was a great tease back and forth with the ex Freelancer and ex Seneca (Banaheeim) factions of the KAC.

I have the parachute. After the final show in 1978 and we were told the corps would be over - it was a sad ending and I was about to get into my car and drive away... I was parked next to the equipment truck and saw the parachute sitting on the ground all by itself in it's cheap sleeping bag duffle. It looked quite sad all by itself...so not unlike picking up a stray kitty I snagged it and threw it into my car. I moved to LA in December of 1978 and could not bear to leave it and so it drove across the continent with me again, the 2 of us driving thru many towns previoulsy visited together--like a couple of old retired farts with our memories. It has made very few appearances since but the most incognito one would be that I wore it for 2 years to the grand Hollywood Halloween parade of weirdos and freaks on Santa Monica Boulevard on Halloween night as a costume. Since I'm 6 ft tall anyways my friend fashioned it as a dress and with high heels and a train it made quite a presence and I was photographed by the media (okay I had rubber rats and snakes etc hanging from it as well) I will post photo...

One more thing -- the Mt Rushmore event had a little more to it than sitting on Lincoln's nose with the police helicopters swirling above. Pictures were taken from below with a zoom camera and the corps kids up there had their pants down and were mooning. So there are bare bums off of Lincoln's nose. I have those pics and haven't really showed them in 40 yrs for fear of someone thinking it disrespectful. Those guys did get down and did not get discovered hmmm.

Thanks for letting me blab on ..... I'll post some pics shortly.

Edited January 9, 2008 by Paq

[Northern Thunder]

I always wondered what happened to the parachute.

Thanks Wendy!

Edited January 9, 2008 by Northern Thunder

[DCIHasBeen]

WOW - thanks for making this a discussion. In the Fall of 1975 Peter Byrne (who was Seneca's horn instructor for all three short years of Seneca's existence) asked me and my ex Gilles to come to Toronto and teach the Toronto Optimists (we were living in Montreal and teaching Les Chatelaines after being heavily involved in their reformation). We did move to Toronto and were there only a few weeks when the Toronto Optimists/Seneca Princemen merger was announced. Debbie Miller and I became fast and close friends and teaching the guard heightened when the Seneca Princemen showed up in our ranks. Those girls had a good start on what we trying to do. All of the newly merged corps was very hungry to do well and the teaching staff was extremely close knit making it a wild and fun ride. Once the corps got going many kids from Quebec showed up (having a couple of French speaking instructors helped). I believe one year there were about 6 kids from Quebec including Johanne Briere who played snare. 3 of the instructors -- Peter Byrne (horns), Sam Kays and Al Murray (drums) who were all Canadian had marched in 74 Kingsmen. Kingsmen was a huge influence (and believe me the uniform was not a coincidence). Being called Banaheim was a pleasant surprise. The girls in the guard were just the best to teach---extremely hardworking...a wonderful rag-tag mish-mash of "take no prisoners" girls. As Kelly said lot's of girls showed up from St. John's (my original corps in 64-72) and it was a wonderfully wacky cross town rivalry/friendship with Oaklands... In fact Debbie Miller who taught the rifle line shared an apartment with her sister Cheryl who taught Oaklands flag line.

Ken Mulgrew who had lost his hand in an industrial accident (after someone turned a machine on while his hand was in it) had his hook configured to continue playing and there were many wacky incidents with that hook.

The parachute was a major feat in getting the entire corps underneath. One thing people may not realize is that the guard captain had to pop up thru the hole in the middle and spread her arms out to anchor it, as it had a tendency to want to take off eh and if weather was windy it would lift up. Many times the guard captain had to be anchored by people under the parachute holding her legs down as well

Fast forward to 2006/7. Now living in Los Angeles, I knew it was the opportunity 40 years in the waiting to march with the Kingsmen in the Alumni Corps, and met many great people and Kingsmen legends... 2 other ex-Seneca signed up Mhairi Cumming (flag) and Jim Kane (conga/tymp also brother-in-law) made the trek from Toronto to join the KAC... but 1977 came back to us when we met up with Carl Allison of the Freelancers who in 77 had a a rivalry with Seneca always barely above or below each other...he said the Freelancers would cringe when they would hear the crowd cheer for the parachute since he felt the parachute was our "ace in the hole" and they may have beat us more often if we didn't have it. There was a great tease back and forth with the ex Freelancer and ex Seneca (Banaheeim) factions of the KAC.

I have the parachute. After the final show in 1978 and we were told the corps would be over - it was a sad ending and I was about to get into my car and drive away... I was parked next to the equipment truck and saw the parachute sitting on the ground all by itself in it's cheap sleeping bag duffle. It looked quite sad all by itself...so not unlike picking up a stray kitty I snagged it and threw it into my car. I moved to LA in December of 1978 and could not bear to leave it and so it drove across the continent with me again, the 2 of us driving thru many towns previoulsy visited together--like a couple of old retired farts with our memories. It has made very few appearances since but the most incognito one would be that I wore it for 2 years to the grand Hollywood Halloween parade of weirdos and freaks on Santa Monica Boulevard on Halloween night as a costume. Since I'm 6 ft tall anyways my friend fashioned it as a dress and with high heels and a train it made quite a presence and I was photographed by the media (okay I had rubber rats and snakes etc hanging from it as well) I will post photo...

One more thing -- the Mt Rushmore event had a little more to it than sitting on Lincoln's nose with the police helicopters swirling above. Pictures were taken from below with a zoom camera and the corps kids up there had their pants down and were mooning. So there are bare bums off of Lincoln's nose. I have those pics and haven't really showed them in 40 yrs for fear of someone thinking it disrespectful. Those guys did get down and did not get discovered hmmm.

Thanks for letting me blab on ..... I'll post some pics shortly.

Great story ... But did you ever think of taking up skydiving and restoring the 'chute to its intended purpose in life?

[lindap]

Hi Wendy, neat story and thanks. Les Chatelaines was a good corps. Kelly said something about ‘six degrees of separation’ in a previous post and got me thinking.

Sam Kays visited Alberta late 1970’s amongst others. Pam (guard with SCV before becoming Alberta Girls instructor) and I shared an apartment. We had a dinner party with a number of drum corps folks and Pam was making a Mexican meal. All we had was a crepe maker. The meal was great as Pam is a good cook. I stayed out of the kitchen but made a sign for the kitchen wall, the sign said “Chez Taco Beanery”.

We had wonderful times in Toronto on and off the field. Lots of us drum corps folks would watch Maynard Ferguson and Chuck Mangione concerts, as examples. I also remember Maureen (Seneca guard) introducing us to a club on Danforth with a good band. The band was later called the Parachute Club.

I was living in Kitchener-Waterloo for 2 years, but I do remember Debbie and Cheryl, please say hi. I do not recall meeting you or Kelly in person, other than being at a contest together, but it’s a pleasure to meet both of you now.

[kelcanadian]

One more thing -- the Mt Rushmore event had a little more to it than sitting on Lincoln's nose with the police helicopters swirling above. Pictures were taken from below with a zoom camera and the corps kids up there had their pants down and were mooning. So there are bare bums off of Lincoln's nose. I have those pics and haven't really showed them in 40 yrs for fear of someone thinking it disrespectful. Those guys did get down and did not get discovered hmmm.

Thanks for letting me blab on ..... I'll post some pics shortly.

I totally forgot about the pictures of the moons! I'd heard that some were taken but I've never seen them.

Thanks for filling in the blank spots of that little outing Wendy.

Linda, it really is amazing the number of people we 'almost' knew when we were marching and are finding again here on DCP.

Kelly

[Walter]

We, the Northstars, were there that day too at Mt. Rushmore and our corps director got really p'd that some of us were on the faces as well.

If I'm not mistaken, drill instructor, Len Curtis was one of the people on the faces, wasn't he ??

Edited January 10, 2008 by ODBC

[Paq]

We, the Northstars, were there that day too at Mt. Rushmore and our corps director got really p'd that some of us were on the faces as well.

If I'm not mistaken, drill instructor, Len Curtis was one of the people on the faces, wasn't he ??

Yep you're right ODBC - Len was one of the bare bums up there....which is how I got the pix...I know Stuart Bentley is as well and since I don't know the rest of them from that position I'll have to leave it at that.

[Walter]

Yep you're right ODBC - Len was one of the bare bums up there....which is how I got the pix...I know Stuart Bentley is as well and since I don't know the rest of them from that position I'll have to leave it at that.

Len instructed Northstars in 1977 then went to Optimists.

He was a riot....and a bit off the wall !!

[A27Lancer]

Yep you're right ODBC - Len was one of the bare bums up there....which is how I got the pix...I know Stuart Bentley is as well and since I don't know the rest of them from that position I'll have to leave it at that.

Wow, and I thought 27th pushing a guard member into the Niagara River 30 feet from the falls was the height of hijinks!! (I keed, I keed)

[Paq]

Len instructed Northstars in 1977 then went to Optimists.

He was a riot....and a bit off the wall !!

Len has the most wicked dry sense of humour and most people don't get him...and he's an awesome horn player starting out in the Midlanders with Sam Kays and Al Murray... He did indeed teach marching with Seneca in '78. He also marched in the Kingsmen Alumni Corps the past 2 years playing lead baritone.

(He had marched in the Kingsmen in '75.)

Tidbits on Len Courtis.